Walking Daddy

Chapter 26

The elder’s words helped to bridge the gap, and my people and the survivors from the school began to speak on the same wavelength. From these conversations, I got answers to the questions that had been plaguing me. The week before, the black creature had attacked the two men on lookout duty. Everyone said that it had all happened in a flash. In fact, it was over so quickly that they couldn’t do anything about it.

Fortunately, after attacking those two, the black creature had jumped over the wall and ran off as though bewitched by something. I had mixed feelings toward their story, because I knew that the black creature had come after Lee Jeong-Uk and I afterward.

I pursed my lips, feeling uneasy as I listened to the principal’s story. He seemed to remember the devastation that had been wrought that day. He pressed his fingers against his temples and let out a deep sigh, then continued.

After the black creature had vanished, everyone inside quickly made their way outside to see the two. They had already died and were in the process of mutation. Their veins seemed like they were going to burst, and their pupils were dilating and contracting repeatedly.

The principal said that he had taken care of them until the end. Lee Jeong-Uk wanted him to elaborate on what he meant by ‘taking care of them’. The principal clenched his fists while biting his lips.

“Their head, with this…” he said, his voice cracking. He picked up the monkey wrench on the floor. His eyes welled up with tears, as though the pain he had felt that day was still fresh in his mind.

I observed his demeanor closely. His shoulders weren’t heavy with guilt or fear. It was a sense of responsibility that was crushing him down to his soul, a weight that he couldn’t brush off. This responsibility of his had kept him alive to this day, while sapping the life out of him. He was certainly a poor soul.

The others remained silent, and the principal took a deep breath before going on. “The younger group of adults left the school.”

“They left?” repeated Lee Jeong-Uk.

“They finally found a justifiable reason to do so,” replied the principal. “They saw me do something inhumane with their very own eyes. So they left, just like that.”

“Damn bastards,” Lee Jeong-Uk cursed through gritted teeth, his fists clenching in anger.

The younger adults who had been looking for any excuse to justify their actions had left the school the instant such an excuse had appeared. I could almost see them accusing the principal for his incompetence and cruelty, berating him with the fact that he had crushed their heads.

Once they’d left, the principal had to step up as the elders and children left at the school were helpless, like wilting plants. He had taken trips outside on his own to retrieve the food and necessities they needed. The principal’s expression grew sad. “About two days after that, the elders said they would make the trips outside with me.”

The principal looked at the elder, his eyes downcast. The elder nodded slowly and silently. After a moment, he spoke. “He was against the idea, but we didn’t want to be a burden.”

According to the principal, the elders were incredibly stubborn. He had no choice but to take them with him on his trips outside. Over the course of two days, half of the elders had been wiped out. Their deaths broke the principal’s heart and threatened to overwhelm his sanity. He thought about dying multiple times a day, torn between reason and emotion.

Each time it happened, though, the children were there to bring him to his senses. The way the children looked at him renewed his flagging hope. He endured the pain of going out everyday. He probably had to endure more suffering as more and more elders passed away. The previous night, the children in their middle- and late-teens said they would join in as well.

After this revelation, I looked at the boy who was sitting in the corner. He was comforting the girl, who was crying silently.

Lee Jeong-Uk smacked his lips and asked the boy a question. “What’s your name?”

“Byeon Hyeok-Jin,” replied the boy, rather curtly. I wondered if he was still keeping his distance from Lee Jeong-Uk and I.

Lee Jeong-Uk nodded slowly, then asked the girl next to him, “How about you?”

“Ga-In. Woo Ga-In.”

“Woo Ga-In? I haven’t heard the family name ‘Woo’ in a while.” He smiled and continued, “You made a courageous decision. I bet it wasn’t easy for you to do so.”

“We’re different from them,” Byeon Hyeok-Jin retorted with a frown on his face. I wondered if his anger was directed towards the teachers who had abandoned them. To me, it seemed like they still harbored doubts and distrust toward adults, which explained why they were keeping their distance from Lee Jeong-Uk and I.

To them, Lee Jeong-Uk and I probably seemed no different from the teachers—young and healthy adults who could abandon them at any time. Adults who were still in their prime, and selfish deep down. I could see why they would keep their distance from us.

After a moment, the principal sitting across the table spoke up. “It wasn’t an easy decision for both me and the students.”

The principal confessed that he had brooded over whether it was all right to let the youngsters go outside. He wasn’t sure if it was right to take the children beyond the barricades, given how difficult it was just trying to survive. Struggling with this question had cost him a night of sleep. Finally, at sunrise that morning, he let Byeon Hyeok-Jin and Woo Ga-In accompany him outside.

They stayed close to the school so that he could teach them what they had to be cautious of when going outside. However, a zombie had snuck up on them, causing Woo Ga-In to scream, thus throwing the expedition into chaos.

At that moment, I remembered the faces of the principal and children while they had been trapped in the dressing room. Even in such a situation, the principal had prioritized the safety of the children over his own. I recalled the zombies trying all their might to get inside while the male student was struggling to escape through the narrow hole.

The principal had fought back, with no hint of running away, as if he had already accepted his death. If I hadn’t gone into the clothing store, he would’ve met his end there. The children, who had barely made it out, would have met the same fate on their way back to the school.

Having listened to all that had happened in the past week, I looked at Lee Jeong-Uk and took a deep breath. He studied me for a moment, then chuckled. “Why, you want to get going?”

“Grr…” I let out a growl by accident. Everyone in the principal’s office was aghast at the sound. The principal stiffened, and I could almost tell what was going through his mind.

Unlike everyone else, however, the elder merely looked at Lee Jeong-Uk and me, his eyes full of curiosity. “Did you say your name is Lee Jeong-Uk?” he asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Can you understand what he’s saying?”

“I can’t, but I can tell the difference between ‘yes’ and ‘no’.” Lee Jeong-Uk answered, scratching his forehead.

The elder nodded as he looked at me. He was clearly finding this whole interaction fascinating. I couldn’t tell by his expression what he was thinking. He was looking at me and Lee Jeong-Uk with a gentle smile.

After a moment, he clasped his hands together and said, “I’m not sure if this analogy is accurate. However, we know that animals also have feelings; they just can’t express themselves using human language. I believe the fellow here is in a similar predicament. What do you think, Principal?”

The principal replied with a sigh, keeping his eyes on Lee Jeong-Uk.

“He can understand what we’re saying, right?” asked the elder.

“Yes,” replied Lee Jeong-Uk. “He just can’t speak.”

“Then how do you two usually communicate?”

“We exchange ideas through writing or drawings.”

The principal was still rather guarded when it came to me. However, I knew his curiosity was just as strong as his sense of caution, and he was dying to ask questions and know more about me. After a moment, he straightened his posture and cleared his throat. “Let me ask just one more question.”

It seemed like all the other questions had merely been intermediate steps to get to the real question. He was finally cutting to the chase. He sighed deeply before continuing.

“I’m not sure if I can say such a thing to someone who saved our lives, but why did you save us in the first place? It seems to me that your people have no problem sustaining yourselves. Why did you save weaklings like us? No matter how much I think about it, I just can’t seem to understand your actions.”

As he spoke, I caught a glimpse of desire in his eyes. He seemed to be looking for a specific answer, yet it was one that he couldn’t really articulate to himself. I could tell, however, that he needed some words of consolation. I knew exactly how he was feeling.

He needed someone to give him solace. In this situation, comfort was valued as much as hope was. I could empathize with the principal’s reactions. The bad blood between him and the other teachers had probably caused him to lose his trust in others. I knew better than to let something like that happen again.

I stared at Lee Jeong-Uk. It seemed like he had also realized what the principal needed right away.

Out of the blue, I recalled the first time I met Lee Jeong-Uk’s group. Lee Jeong-Uk had been as cautious as the principal, perhaps even more. He had been ready to crush my head in with the shovel he’d been wielding back then.

However, the agreement we had come to, the contract that we had made, had been enough to bring consolation to his group, and as it continued, trust soon developed.

With a smile, Lee Jeong-Uk answered the principal’s question for me. “Does there have to be a reason for people to help other people?”

His words were enough to move the principal. He nodded slowly and silently. The elder nodded as well, a smile on his face. He was clearly pleased by what Lee Jeong-Uk had said.

The principal got to his feet and took a deep breath. “Frankly speaking, I still don't know if this is the right thing to do. However, I think it would be best to follow you, for the childrens’ sake. Looking at you and Lee Jeong-Uk, along with the others who are with you, gives me hope for a brighter future.”

The principal couldn’t look me in the eye, but I could see his slight smile. I nodded back without saying a word.

Lee Jeong-Hyuk and Kang Eun-Jeong were taking care of the children in the classroom. They weren’t being pretentious at all. In the end, how much stuff you had did not matter when it came to interacting with others. Interactions had nothing to do with things like fame or wealth.

Empathy.

All that was needed was a sense of empathy, being able to understand and care for others. The principal stretched out his hand. “A second betrayal would absolutely destroy me. I don’t know how I’ll act if that happens.”

There was a kaleidoscope of meaning and emotion behind his words. He was desperately asking for a favor, and yet he was threatening us at the same time.

I stood up and clasped his hand tightly. I knew there was no way he could get rid of his anxiety right away. As I shook his outstretched hand, offered to me with a myriad of emotions, I hoped that my sincerity could help him find a sense of peace.

After a brief moment, Lee Jeong-Uk spoke up. “Alrighty then! Let’s get going before sunset!”

Everyone in the principal’s office nodded in agreement.

After doing a headcount, we realized that there were twenty one children, four elders, and the principal. There were a total of twenty-six survivors in the school.

I knew we needed more underlings if we were to move all these people. I stepped out of the principal’s office catching Lee Jeong-Uk’s eye and gesturing to him with my hands.

‘Zombies over the wall. Need to make them into underlings.’

I always knew that body language was the best form of communication between humans. He looked closely at my gestures and tried to guess at my intentions. “You’re going to bring your underlings?” he asked, his voice lacking in confidence.

He sort of managed to get what I was trying to say. I nodded, and Lee Jeong-Uk gave me a pat on the shoulder, as though guessing my intentions was a piece of cake to him.

“You’re right. It’s probably better to get into formation on the field in the school compound, instead of doing it outside the gates. We’ll wait here.”

I nodded and made my way to the front entrance. As I passed the tightly-shut steel gate, I saw my underlings sitting in the shadows, examining the red dragonflies. I had a total of thirty underlings waiting for my command. Thirty definitely wasn’t a small number, but considering the amount of people we had, it wasn’t going to be enough.

I assumed that five underlings to each person would be optimal. I knew that the zombies in the streets would make their move if they saw even the slightest gap. If they managed to harm any of the survivors, they might become infected as well.

‘What if I gathered the survivors in the center of my underlings? No, no. The zombies with their sense of sight would be attracted right away.’

It only made sense that larger groups would attract more attention.

‘Is moving around in smaller numbers the only solution?’

I stopped thinking about the details and looked at the zombies milling about the streets.

‘So the bottom line is that I don’t have enough underlings, huh? Let’s get to work.’